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Friday, February 24, 2017

Max is pretty solid on his set up on stage. He doesn't diva-out and need every new item that is born each day. When he gets his set up sounding good, he stays with it! He has had an endorsement with several guitar companies through the years, but settled long ago, with ESP Guitars. He is also blessed with a Peavey endorsement, and actually, he is the longest running endorsement of any artist, with Peavey! Of course there are many endorsements for things like cords, cases, strings and picks, but his guitars and cabs are the spine. But, let's talk berimbau!!

When Max informed us he was going to play a berimbau, he really caught a lot of crap. "Only black people can play that!" Max would just chuckle and look at me...our eyes would connect and we would both know.... The berimbau is traditionally an instrument played by African musicians, in Brazil. It looks a bit like a bow and arrow, with a gourd connected in the middle. The wire is similar to a piano wire, and it is played by hitting the wire with a slim stick. The open end of the gourd goes against your body. You also need a round, flat stone (or metal fitting) to hold between the string and the wood, to keep it seperate. It sounds confusing, but Max handles it like a pro. He is the only Metal artist known to use this.

Peavey has supplied Soulfly and Max's other bands with gear in every country we play! In Europe and the UK, they sent him camo colored cabinets and amps, which we store in our location in Germany. When we fly across the Atlantic, our gear is there waiting for us! Max's amps are always updated with Peavey's newest line. Currently, Max uses the 6505's.

Max's World is always on the side of the stage Kenny chooses. Kenny has been Max's tech over 15 years now. He is much more than a tech; he is a friend, a family and occasionally, when I ask, he is a bulldozer. I am pretty sure he would take a bullet for any one of us and therefore he needs to be included in any mention of Max's gear...Kenny comes with it! He is always surrounded by cases, pedals and guitars but if you look hard enough, you will see bit of Pokemon hunting going on and the Kings playing hockey on a mini TV!!

One pedal Max uses is a D tuning pedal. This enables the guitar to down tune and not switch the guitar. Another is a mild distortion pedal, and the other pedal is a noise compressor. They all stay in his rack and slide out on a small tray. On top of the rack cabinet is Kenny's guitar tuner and another noise suppressor. The amps are stored at the bottom in the rack and there usually is a spare in case of a blowout in one.

On stage, Max has a pedal board with 2 pedals on it. Max uses these when he chooses to. One is an Auto-Wah and the other is a Super Flanger. They both make various noises and Max uses them parallel to his whims! One of these whims is throwing water all over the place, so Kenny keeps these tightly covered with plastic sheeting. You can see this above, as the pedalboard sits in the guitar boat, waiting to go on stage. The guitar boat is also a necessity, holding the guitars upright during the shows!

That is the bulk of the gear, other than the Shure mics, guitar straps, cords, SIT Strings, cases, and oh, yeah.....these little pieces of plastic everyone goes crazy for......

Friday, February 17, 2017

In 1983, when my brother, Paul, and I owned the Bootleggers Club, I dabbled in band management. What I really was focused on though, was the production of the shows. I had never known one drop of production, promotion, gear, anything to do with the music biz! The first music dude who contacted me was Bill Metoyer, the Vice President of Metal Blade Records. Damn was I excited!! He called to book Lizzy Borden.

When the city illegally took our club, I plunged into silence. Damn, we had lost everything we had, in one night! We couldn't afford a costly court case, so we just walked away. I guess it was a blessing that I didn't recognize at the time. A few months later, I was talking to Jason Rainey, of Sacred Reich, and he was telling me they had gotten an offer to record, from Metal Blade. I asked if he wanted me to manage them and he said yes!! When I hung up the phone, I looked at Christina and Dana and said "what does a manager do?" Being a woman in the music business, you can't count on much help or favors. I dove in and here I still am.... The Sacred adventure was about to begin!

Bill was also a record producer and worked with most of the Metal Blade bands. He was the coolest to work with and we called him Bill "Valium" Metoyer! When the time came to record, he arranged the transportation, per diems, gear, and even found us an apartment to stay in!! He was professional from Day 1!! I even had my own room! We were going to stay in California for a whole month!!

Step by step, we went through the recording process. Everything was new, fresh, exciting! We laughed, partied and recorded. I admit the guys got wild at times, and once even rumbled in my room, breaking the night stand. It was Metal, I guess.

Ignorance turned into a classic and Sacred is now viewed as one of the early Metal pioneers! I was very blessed to work with them and go to the Metal University of the 1980's!! It was so fresh! I didn't know the long road I would travel. 33 years in Metal...

Friday, February 10, 2017

2001 was a strange year, politically. Max became an American and received the famed, blue, US passport one week before 9-11. We were like "ouch," but also overjoyed that he had achieved such a step in his life. He always says he is like Jason Bourne!

The horrible sight on TV of the Twin Towers falling and the haunting voice mail on my private number coupled together and literally took our breath away. Max was just starting to write the Soulfly 3 record and this dark time would affect his lyrics. He mastered songs like Seek and Strike for the troops and Defeat U, with Danny Marianino of Northside Kings, slaughtered the likes of Al Qaeda.

When it came time to make the video, the chosen track was Seek and Strike. We decided to make it on our property in Unincorporated Phoenix. The property is in the center of an extinct volcano, with bobcats, a clever mountain lion, coyotes and plenty of rattlesnakes. Nestled in a mountainous area, it made privacy complete. The only problem...it was about 120 degrees the day of the daytime shoot!

We gathered our friends, the gear, and plenty of face paint! Christina painted Soulfly symbols on the faces of the extras (our close friends and our kids), as Max, and Co. tore through the silence of the valley, with their sweat drenched performance. As I recall, Leo caught a rattler who seemed to want his face painted too, but the brushes just weren't small enough!

After the performance was filmed several times, our herd of Tribesters tramped through the creek bed and the cactus patches, trying to avoid the jumping cactus. We all ended up on a large piece of bedrock, with a water truck spraying water wildly at everyone. There was a lot of laughing our asses off and sweating rock salt. I won't mention when we found the ice cold watermelon chunks saved only for the video crew...... 😊

Friday, February 3, 2017

In 2002, the movie, The Scorpion King was released by Warner Bros. Did you know Max does the voice for The Rock, AKA The Scorpion King? I got a call from someone at Warner, asking if Max was available to head to a local studio, in Phoenix, and simply yell, scream, hiss and make whatever noise the could conjure up from his throat. Of course I said yes, as we just happened to be home at the time.

For 4 hours, Max shrieked every sound he could spit out, from growling, to the yell from hell! It was so easy for him! The engineer was simply amazed and asked how he could do such things, but Max just laughed and said it was easy. He never lost his voice or got a sore throat.

The day of the release, we got invited to the after party, so we made our way to Hollywood. We partied with Zyon and Igor all day at Universal Studios and then went to the party at night. It was amazing with statues from the movie and Egyptian styled revelers surrounding us. Food and booze and fire!!! I admit, when it was time to go, we stuffed 6 of the ceramic table decorations in my handbag! One for each child! Hell, we needed souvenirs!!

When the movie came out, there was Max's name in the credits. He was listed as Creature Foley, because the studio had a contract with The Rock and couldn't give Max credit for the Scorpion King's voice. If you watch the movie and listen carefully, you will hear our Tribe Father's growl throughout. And you know what else? I never signed the contract....they can look for it, but they don't have it! Sometimes you just gotta stand firm..

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ABOUT YOUR TEACHER

"This is my story...my Metal History, a salad tossed with my roots, my present life, the lives of my children and grandchildren. And ...the story must be and can only be written by those who lived it..." Gloria Cavalera